At least until Election Day, Republicans were supposed to pretend that their party’s alleged “war on women” was nothing but a paranoid fantasy stoked by desperate Democrats. Obviously, Rep. Todd Akin didn’t get the memo.

Despite a stodgy reputation, Republicans are capable of a little craziness. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was moved to scold a group of GOP congressmen who drank and went swimming—at least one of them in the nude (that’s him pictured)—during a “fact-finding” trip to Israel last year.

Democracy in action? More like democracy inaction. A Pennsylvania judge said he would not halt a strict new voter identification law that critics say could effectively disenfranchise nearly 10 percent of the population and disproportionally affect the young, the elderly and the poor in the state’s urban areas.

Thousands are still struggling in Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis., after General Motors shut down its century-old plant there in 2008. What economic recovery has occurred there is due largely to the federal stimulus programs so loathed by Republicans.

The bright-faced boy from Janesville and avowed man of the people has taken money from banksters, big insurance and the Koch brothers throughout his career, and has $5.4 million in the campaign chest—$2 million more than the next highest House member.

Are you poor? Female? A student? A veteran? Planning on growing old? Zach Woods of “The Office”? Well, congratulations! If Mitt Romney is elected president, then you’re definitely going to get screwed by his running mate Paul Ryan! Click below to find out how.

“Few media behaviors are more pitiful than the intense fixation over the ‘Veepstakes,’ a word that is at once nauseatingly vapid and yet incomparably valuable as a symbol of our nation’s pointless, juvenile political media,” Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon.

Having observed politics up close and personal for most of my adult lifetime, I have come to the conclusion that the rise of politicized religious fundamentalism may have been the key ingredient in the transformation of the Republican Party.

Instead of doing the right thing—i.e., apologizing—for his insensitive and outrageous claim that President Obama’s mandate that insurance companies provide contraception without a co-pay is just like the 9/11 terrorists and Pearl Harbor, GOP freshman Rep. Mike Kelly is doing the opposite: doubling down on his remarks.

Tea party insurgent Ted Cruz trounced Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the candidate supported by Gov. Rick Perry, in the race for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in Texas, suggesting that the tea party could overtake the state’s Republican political establishment.

President Mitt Romney? Although it might be unthinkable right now that the gaffe-prone GOP presidential candidate could win the election, Republicans have figured out a way to help make that a reality. Hint: It involves suppressing the rights of millions of Americans.

The International AIDS Conference is making dangerously impossible promises about putting an end to the epidemic; the London Olympics’ opening ceremonies included a unique tribute to free, universal health care; meanwhile, British graffiti artist Banksy has proved he will not be erased. These discoveries and more after the jump.

The roiling paranoia and hatred that marred American politics when Bill and Hillary Clinton were in the White House has resurfaced in attacks on Barack and Michelle Obama, who like the Clintons have been maligned repeatedly as communist, subversive, Satanic and, above all, illegitimate.

Spare us any more hooey about “preventing fraud” and “protecting the integrity of the ballot box.” The Republican-led crusade for voter ID laws is revealed as a cynical ploy to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as possible, with poor people and minorities the main targets.

Ron Paul has considerable leverage at the GOP’s national convention resulting from his enthusiastic national support, which could allow him to modify the Republican platform, land a prime speaking spot or even have a shot at the vice presidential nomination.

Having demanded a federal investigation of intelligence leaks, Republicans on Capitol Hill now claim to be outraged because Attorney General Eric Holder has asked two United States attorneys to conduct that probe—and one of the two happens to be a Democrat.

Gov. Scott Walker is not being challenged because he pursued conservative policies but because Wisconsin has become the most glaring example of a new and genuinely alarming approach to politics on the right.